Synergetic Evolution of Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Polymeric Semiconductor for High Reproducibility and Performance: Random Copolymerization of Similarly Shaped Building Blocks

A new random copolymer consisting of similarly shaped donor–acceptor building blocks of diketopyrrolopyrrole-selenophene-vinylene-selenophene (DPP-SVS) and DPP-thiophene-vinylene-thiophene (DPP-TVT) is designed and synthesized. The resulting P-DPP-SVS(5)-TVT(5) with an equal molecular ratio of the two building blocks produced significantly enhanced solubility when compared to that of the two homopolymers, PDPP-SVS and PDPP-TVT. More importantly, despite the maximum segmental randomness of the PDPP-SVS(5)-TVT(5) copolymer, its crystalline perfectness and preferential orientation are outstanding, even similar to those of the homopolymers thanks to the similarity of the two building blocks. This unique property produces a high charge carrier mobility of 1.23 cm2 V−1 s−1 of PDPP-SVS(5)-TVT(5), as determined from polymer field-effect transistor (PFET) measurements. The high solubility of PDPP-SVS(5)-TVT(5) promotes formulation of high-viscosity solutions which could be successfully processed to fabricate large-areal PFETs onto hydrophobically treated 4 in. wafers. A total of 269 individual PFETs are fabricated. These devices exhibit extremely narrow device-to-device deviations without a single failure and demonstrate an average charge carrier mobility of 0.66 cm2 V−1 s−1 with a standard deviation of 0.064. This is the first study to report on successfully realizing large-areal reproducibility of high-mobility polymeric semiconductors.